Canada under British Rule 1760-1900 eBook

and irresponsible government could be successfully
combined....To suppose that such a system would work
well there, implied a belief that the French Canadians
have enjoyed representative institutions for half a
century, without acquiring any of the characteristics
of a free people; that Englishmen renounce every political
opinion and feeling when they enter a colony, or that
the spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom is utterly changed
and weakened among those who are transplanted across
the Atlantic[3].”

[3: For the full text of Lord Durham’s
report, which was laid before Parliament, 11 February,
1839, see English Parliamentary Papers for
1839.]

In June, 1839, Lord John Russell introduced a bill
to reunite the two provinces, but it was allowed,
after its second reading, to lie over for that session
of parliament, in order that the matter might be fully
considered in Canada. Mr. Poulett Thomson was
appointed governor-general with the avowed object
of carrying out the policy of the imperial government.
Immediately after his arrival in Canada, in the autumn
of 1839, the special council of Lower Canada and the
legislature of Upper Canada passed addresses in favour
of a union of the two provinces. These necessary
preliminaries having been made, Lord John Russell,
in the session of 1840, again brought forward “An
act to reunite the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada,
and for the government of Canada,” which was
assented to on the 23rd of July, but did not come into
effect until the 10th of February in the following
year.

The act provided for a legislative council of not
less than twenty members, and for a legislative assembly
in which each section of the united provinces would
be represented by an equal number of members—­that
is to say, forty-two for each or eighty-four in all.
The number of representatives allotted to each province
could not be changed except with the concurrence of
two-thirds of the members of each house. The
members of the legislative council were appointed by
the crown for life, and the members of the assembly
were chosen by electors possessing a small property
qualification. Members of both bodies were required
to hold property to a certain amount. The assembly
had a duration of four years, subject of course to
be sooner dissolved by the governor-general.

Provision was made for a consolidated revenue fund,
on which the first charges were expenses of collection,
management and receipt of revenues, interest of public
debt, payment of the clergy, and civil list. The
English language alone was to be used in the legislative
records. All votes, resolutions or bills involving
the expenditure of public money were to be first recommended
by the governor-general.